


Cold Dead Reunion

by bafflethemwithbullshit



Category: Criminal Minds, Grey's Anatomy
Genre: Baby Emily, F/F, F/M, Fetus Arizona, Mentions of Death, Mentions of Violence, Serial Killer in Grey-Sloan Memorial
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-14
Updated: 2017-01-11
Packaged: 2018-09-08 13:42:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8847265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bafflethemwithbullshit/pseuds/bafflethemwithbullshit
Summary: There's a serial killer at Grey-Sloan Memorial, and the BAU have to work around the surgeons' work-lives in order to figure it out. And what happens when a member of the team has a history with one of the doctors?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> HI! So, I have this idea in my head and I just needed to get it out there! Hope you like it!

"Damn it!" Arizona threw her scrub cap against the wall and leaned over the scrub trough, trying to gain her composure. She'd just lost a mother and her baby who were in a car accident.

"There was nothin you could've done," Alex tried to soothe her "She was three quarters gone before we even got to her."

Arizona shook her head "It's not good enough," she stood up, facing him "We are supposed to save them, that is our job! And it's _not_ good enough!"

Alex didn't respond, knowing there was nothing that he could say that would make her feel better right about now, so he watched her walk out the door and down the hall.

She walked fast, and everyone knew that meant to get the hell out of her way. She made it to the closest on-call room without breaking down, and after closing the door she rest her head against it - her eyes closed.

A single tear rolled down her cheek, and without opening her eyes she took a step back to find the bed. But then her feet halted incredibly fast and suddenly she was on her back, smacking the side of her head on the bunk. She groaned, her hand instinctively coming up to the cut on her hairline. She tried standing, but the floor was slippery, which gave her no traction what-so-ever.

Her eyes adjusted to the darkness, and she could just make out a figure lying on the ground, so she scrambled for the light switch. But when she turned it on, her eyes went wide, and she was swinging the door open to scream "I NEED SOME HELP IN HERE!"

* * *

"I know it's late so thanks for coming in," Hotch started as the team started to file in one by one onto the jet.

"Why are we meeting on here and not at the BAU?" Emily asked, clearly tired and not quite sure what was going on. Emily had never really been one for early starts.

"This one came straight to me," Hotch said "I got a call from the police department in Seattle, they believe they have a serial killer,"

"Good ol' Seattle," Emily quipped drearily.

"Approximately fifty percent of US serial killers originate in a 200 mile radius around Seattle - in fact-" Reid started to ramble, but Emily cut him off as she looked across at him.

"I haven't even had a coffee yet," she told him, making him pipe down and the others chuckled minutely.

That's when JJ placed two trays of coffees in front of them and Emily looked up at her in disbelief "You're an angel," she said in awe as she took a cup, making JJ shake her head with a smile and sat down on the couch across from the table.

"So what's the urgency?" Rossi asked Hotch as they all got their tablets out as Garcia popped up on screen.

"I'm here! I'm awake! I'm ready to boogie!" she said, clearly not really any of those things.

"Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital," Hotch started after nodding to Garcia, acknowledging her "Three bodies in as many weeks," he continued "Teah Grayson, Michaela Sitwell and Leoni Poll, all white females in their thirties, all worked at Grey-Sloan, all found butchered to death,"

"That's a lot of rage," Luke said "Maybe they're surrogates for someone,"

"Maybe, but until we know more about the victims and the crime scenes, we won't know for sure," Emily piped up.

"So where do we start?" Tara asked looking at her watch "It's 3 a.m."

Hotch nodded "By the time we get to Seattle it will be morning, so we'll get started as soon as we land - Prentiss and Lewis, I want you to head to the hospital with me, I'll talk to the Chief of Surgery - Rossi and JJ, go talk to the families of the victims, find out anything and everything you can about these men. Reid and Alvez, I want you to go straight to the police station, work with the detectives and try and form a pattern."

The team nodded, taking in their assignments as Hotch spoke "Now get some sleep, we'll regroup when we land,"

* * *

They made it to the hospital by 8:30, weary but alert and ready. They had split off into three SUVs; Hotch, Emily and Tara in the first to the hospital, Reid and Luke to the Seattle Police Department, and Dave and JJ to the victims' families.

"I'm gonna head to the Chief's office, you two talk to whoever you can talk to - they're surgeons, which means we have to work around them," Hotch explained as they walked into the lobby of Grey-Sloan Memorial.

Tara and Emily shared a look, both of them knowing that this wasn't going to be easy, and they approached the front desk. Doctors in a mix of light blue and navy blue scrubs stood around with tablets, talking to each other as they hung around the nurses station.

Pagers were going off, phones were ringing, people were hustling. Just an average day in a hospital.

"Hi, may I help you?" asked the young nurse sitting down in front of her computer at the station. Her smile was there, but it didn't reach her eyes.

Emily supposed that's what happens when three of your coworkers die.

"Hi, I'm Supervisory Special Agent Hotchner," he said, pulling out his badge for him to show her "These are agents Prentiss and Lewis, do you have any idea where I can find the Chief of Surgery?"

The young nurse nodded, just as she was about to open her mouth, a voice to the left of them replied instead "Oh, I can take you, I'm headed there anyway,"

The agents turned to the face of a tall, Latina doctor in navy blue scrubs and a white lab coat, a stethoscope hanging around her neck.

"That would be great," Emily spoke up as she extended her hand to the doctor "Thank you, Dr..."

"Oh! Torres!" she replied, shaking her hand with a wide smile "Callie. Nice to meet you," she said and turned to the other two agents, shaking their hands as well "Uh, just follow me and I'll take you to the Chief,"

The four started up the staircase and Callie was the first one to speak "So, you're here about the...deaths?"

"Yeah," Tara replied "Did you know them?"

"Teah was an Ortho nurse, I worked with her a lot - the other two I knew of but not in person," Callie replied "I didn't know that much about her private life, but she was an excellent nurse, and when you're a surgeon you rely on them a lot - they do a lot of the work,"

"What department are you in?" Hotch asked as they reached the second floor and headed towards the elevator.

"I'm the head of Orthopedics," she replied with a smile, clearly in love with her job "People like to say that it's carpentry, but man, when you see a guy with polio walk after 20 years," she shook her head at the memory as they got in the elevator "It reminds you of why you get out of bed in the morning,"

"You must get a lot of broken bones this time of year," Emily stated.

"Oh, you have no idea," Callie chuckled to herself "Christmas is the best, everyone's falling off ladders trying to put up Christmas decorations and getting electrocuted so hard that they shatter both wrists," The three feds looked at her "I mean, it's horrible," she backtracked " _Horrible_ accidents, don't get me wrong, but if you're gonna be a dumbass, what do you expect?"

"Can't argue with that," Emily smirked as they reached their floor and stepped out.

"Says the woman who gets injured on a regular basis," Hotch retorted.

"Doing my _job_ ," she defended herself.

"Mhm," was all he replied with, giving her a sideways glance as they walked along the boardwalk, making her roll her eyes at him.

"Dr Torres!" a young woman in light blue scrubs came running towards them.

"Wilson," Callie greeted.

"Is it true you're building a entire spine from titanium?" she asked excitedly.

"That depends, have you declared a specialty yet?" Callie asked her, not looking at her as they all continued to walk.

"I'm only a fourth year," Jo replied.

"The only person who has ever waited until their fifth year to declare a specialty was Meredith Grey, and she had her own reasons for that - so what's your excuse?"

"Dr. Torres I don't-"

"Wilson, I don't take the time to teach just anyone, and when I do, it better be worthwhile," they all finally stopped in front of an office door, and Callie finally looked at the young resident "You have the hands and the talent for Ortho, you know it and I know it - come find me when you accept it,"

Wilson sighed and nodded before backing off and walking away.

The three agents looked at each other, not really sure what just happened, as Callie knocked on the door of the office, not bothering for a reply before she walked in, the agents following close behind "Bailey,"

"What is it, Torres?" a small African American woman sat behind the large desk, her head buried in her tablet.

"Suits are here for you," she replied and Bailey looked up from the gadget in front of her, standing up and walking around the desk to greet them.

"Chief Bailey, I'm Aaron Hotchner, this is Emily Prentiss and Tara Lewis, FBI," he said, shaking her hand.

"You gonna find out who's killin' my people?" she asked, straight up, clearly not in the mood for pleasantries.

"We're certainly gonna try," he responded, which seemed to do the trick for the time being.

Before anyone else could say anything, Callie's pager went off and she pulled out out of her lap coat to look at it.

_"SHIT!"_

That's when she took off running out of the office and the agents could see her running back across the boardwalk, people making room for her as she barreled towards them.

* * *

Briefing Chief Bailey on what the FBI planned to do didn't take very long. She was a no-nonsense kind of woman, so they got right to the point.

"We'd like to talk to the witnesses who found the victims," Emily piped up, and upon seeing the woman's hesitance, she elaborated "We need to know everything they saw and when they saw it,"

"They've been over all of it with the cops," Bailey responded, clearly not comfortable with putting her staff through it again.

"We're not cops," Tara reasoned "We see things that they don't, that's why we're here,"

Bailey stared them all down for a moment before nodding "Fine, they'll come to you," she looked at her watch "You might be here a while if you want to talk to all three of them - I'll have them come up when they're free,"

"We appreciate that," Hotch nodded as they all stood "Thank you for your time,"

Bailey nodded to him and they shook hands "Just find the bastard,"

* * *

"You hear the FBI's in the hospital?" April asked Arizona as she approached her at the nurses station in the ER, but Arizona wasn't listening "Hello? Arizona?"

"Huh? Yeah, sure,"

April followed the line of sight the Pediatric surgeon was holding without waver, and sighed when she saw a certain brunette in the trauma room "This needs to stop,"

That snapped Arizona out of it, and back into reality as she turned to face her friend "What? What needs to stop? The FBI's here?"

"You have been staring at her ever since she got back from New York, but then you avoid her like the plague when she comes close to you," April said "You need to talk to her,"

"And say what?" Arizona asked, slightly exasperated "Callie and I don't work,"

April didn't argue, knowing full-well that there was no point. She'd tried to ignore the staring, and at first, April thought it was out of anger. But then she had caught her smiling, staring at her from a distance, and then getting flustered anytime the brunette got near.

So Arizona started running away. And April couldn't ignore it any longer. But no one can force Arizona Robbins to do anything she didn't want to do, and once her mind was made up - that was it.

So April decided to leave it, and take her mind off of it instead "Anyway, the FBI got here a few hours ago, apparently they think there's a serial killer in the hospital,"

Arizona's eyebrows rose to her hairline "In the hospital? Like working with us?"

April shrugged "I don't know, I mean it's just gossip right? There wouldn't actually be a serial killer in the hospital, would there?"

"There's a serial killer in the hospital?" the voice of Meredith Grey made both surgeons jump out of their skin.

Meredith joined them at the desk, updating her chart on the tablet "I wouldn't be surprised," Arizona piped up, making Meredith snort.

"Tell me about it," she replied.

"You guys aren't worried?" asked April and then lowered her voice and leaned in "They could be watching us like prey right now,"

Meredith laughed at the trauma surgeon "April, you are way too paranoid,"

"Is that why three people have been killed in the last month?" April pointed out, crossing her arms over her chest defensively.

"Three?" Meredith asked "I thought it was two,"

"Sitwell from Peds," April replied.

"Can we not talk about this, please?" Arizona piped up, clearly frustrated with the line of conversation "I tripped over in Michaela's blood, so can we not?"

And with that, she walked away, her gaze following Callie in the trauma room as she walked past.

"Meredith, any one of us could be next," April whispered once Arizona was out of earshot, making Meredith roll her eyes with a smirk and put her hand on her shoulder.

"April. You worry too much."

* * *

"Thank you for talking with us," Emily said as she and Tara sat across from the young nurse on Chief Bailey's couch "I know it must be difficult,"

The woman was already crying, and no one had said anything yet. They'd only just learnt her name between sobs.

"Marie, did you know Leoni very well?" asked Tara as she held a box of tissues out for her, the nurse took two before answering.

"No," she replied "I've seen her around, you know, and I think she was nice - at least that's what I heard,"

Emily and Tara shared a look, she wasn't going to be much help to them. If she was this emotional before she even introduced herself, it was going to be a very long interview. Hotch had gone back to the Seattle Police Department to help with the profile, and left the women to the witness interviews, knowing it might take the entire day to get through the interviews.

"Why don't you start from the beginning?" Emily pressed "What were you doing just before you found her?"

* * *

_"Have you got anything for us?"_

Emily sighed as she and Tara stepped out of the office, deciding to go for a walk around to see if they could find anyone who would talk to them "Unfortunately, no," she replied, the phone on loudspeaker as they walked across the boardwalk "The first nurse was too emotional, I don't even think half the facts were real, I think it's in her head,"

_"Are you doubting she actually saw anything?"_

"I don't know, Hotch," Emily shook her head "I just don't think she's a solid witness,"

_"What about the second one?"_

"The second one was better - he was a little shaken up, but he was consistent and clear," Tara said "He's a nurse on the Orthopedics floor so he knew our first victim, Teah Grayson. It turns out, she and her girlfriend were looking at buying a house together. The girlfriend's a firefighter with Firehouse 21,"

_"What about the other two? Michaela Sitwell and Leoni Poll?"_

"Leoni Poll was a radiologist, other than that we didn't really get anything out of the witness," Emily replied "Like I said, not a solid witness,"

"We're still waiting to speak with the third witness," Tara explained "We're gonna go and find out who knew our victims, see if we can get a better read on them,"

_"Good, let me know how you go,"_

"Will do, Hotch," Emily replied before they hung up as they reached the elevators "Both of these women seemed well-liked, they seemed good at their jobs...really all that's connecting them is the hospital in general,"

"They weren't in the same fields, they were in completely different roles," Tara shook her head "All we've got to go on is that they're all women in their thirties who work in this hospital,"

Emily sighed "It's not much,"

"Well, we've worked with less, right?" Tara responded as they rode the elevator down.

Emily nodded and thought for a second "Okay, how about you go to the Orthopedics floor, and I'll go to the radiology department?"

Tara nodded "Cut the time in half," she agreed and the elevator stopped on the Ortho floor "I'll call you if I get anything,"

Emily nodded and sighed as she leaned back against the back of the elevator, but stood up straight when she felt it stop again. As she walked towards radiology, she landed at the desk, greeting the nurse with a smile.

"Hi," she said "I'm Emily Prentiss with the FBI, I was just wondering if you knew anyone-"

"Emily?"

The voice was familiar. A voice she'd recognize anywhere. When she turned around, there she was.

_"Arizona..."_


	2. Chapter 2

_"Arizona..."_

The two women stood there, staring at each other for a moment before both broke out into grins and crushed each other in a tight hug.

"What are you doing here, Prentiss?" Arizona asked before they pulled back but didn't let go of each other, still grinning from ear to ear.

"Here on business, unfortunately," Emily replied, her expression going somber as Arizona realized.

"You're with the FBI..."

Emily nodded "Yeah," she said softly "We're just waiting to speak with a third witness,"

"The one who found the Peds scrub nurse?" Arizona asked and the two women slowly let go of each other. Emily nodded again, and Arizona sighed, dropping her gaze "That'd be me,"

Emily's eyes widened, momentarily, before she composed herself and sighed "I'm sorry," Arizona looked up at her again and just shrugged, not really knowing what to say "Did you know her well?"

"Not well," Arizona replied, shaking her head slightly "Great scrub nurse, nice ass, but other than that..."

Emily snorted softly, almost so Arizona didn't hear it. Almost.

"What?"

"You haven't changed one bit, Battleship," Emily smirked before Arizona looked mock offended, punching her in the arm "I've missed you,"

Arizona sobered slightly and sighed a little "Yeah, me too,"

"Are you doing anything right now?" Emily asked "I haven't eaten all day and I'm so hungry I could even eat hospital food,"

Arizona chuckled "Well now I know you're really hungry," she joked and looped her arm through Emily's as they made their way toward the elevator.

"So, I want to hear everything," Emily started "What's been going on-"

"Nick died." Arizona cut her off and Emily's step faltered slightly, but she continued anyway.

"I know." she said softly, almost a whisper.

"You weren't at the funeral," Arizona said.

"Neither were you."

"I had an excuse."

"So did I," Emily responded "I was..." _Dead._ "Busy,"

"Yeah..." Arizona replied "That seems to be the case,"

"Arizona..."

Arizona pulled away from her, and they stopped in the middle of the hallway, and Emily knew what was coming next wouldn't be fun "Where were you?"

"I was-"

"Busy. I know. We're all busy, Emily!" Arizona raised her voice "I was in a _plane crash!_ Nick had just died and you were nowhere to be seen!"

Emily dropped her eyes to the ground, avoiding her gaze. She couldn't tell her what happened with Doyle. She would never look at her the same way ever again.

"You disappeared!" Arizona shouted "I got married! I had a kid! You were supposed to be there and you were nowhere to be found!"

"You got married?" Emily couldn't help the small smile that crept onto her face.

"And divorced!" Tears started to build up in the blue pools of her eyes "Where were you?"

They stood there for a moment, Emily's mouth opening and closing before she finally said "I'm sorry."

Arizona shook her head and scoffed "Yeah," she said softly "Me too," and with that, she walked off, leaving Emily standing in the middle of the walkway, frozen.

Emily took a deep breath, she wasn't going to break down. Not here. So she composed herself, held her head up and turned to walk back in the other direction before bumping into a familiar face.

"Oh! I'm so sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going!"

"It's okay, Dr. Torres, neither was I," Emily tried to smile at her, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. Callie looked at her for a moment, but didn't say anything "How's your patient?"

"I'm sorry?"

"The one from earlier? You got paged in the Chief's office..."

"Oh! Right," Callie responded "Guy went skydiving and landed in between two power lines, shattered over 80 bones in his body,"

"He's still alive?"

Callie shook her head "The damage to his heart was too much, he stroked out in the trauma room,"

"I'm sorry to hear that," Emily replied, making Callie nod gratefully to her.

"Y'know, I was just heading to the cafeteria to grab something to eat, you wanna join?" Callie asked her, and when she saw Emily about to politely decline, she spoke up again "It's just, you look like you could use a friend right now,"

Emily gave her a small smile "That'd be great, actually,"

Callie beamed back at her "Okay,"

* * *

Tara found her in the cafeteria where Emily had texted her to meet her, laughing with Dr. Torres about something. But she knew there was something bothering the other agent, and she didn't have to be a qualified psychologist to see it.

"Hey, did you find anything?" Emily greeted her as she approached the table, sitting down.

"Yes, actually," she replied, making Emily lean forward "I didn't find anything else about Teah Grayson, but I did find more out about your victim, Leoni Poll," she started "Apparently she left her husband,"

"Yeah, about eight months ago," Callie joined in.

"For another woman," Tara added, making Emily furrow her eyebrows and nod slowly, joining the dots together.

That's when she saw the blonde haired, blue eyed surgeon step into the cafeteria, and Emily shot out of her seat "I'll be right back,"

She raced over to the surgeon, who rolled her eyes and tried to ignore her "Were you sleeping with her?" she asked, getting straight to the point, making Arizona give her a sharp look "Yes or no,"

"That's none of your business-"

"It is actually," Emily replied a little harsher than she intended "It's my job, and I need to know everything about the victims which includes their personal lives. So, yes or no,"

Arizona stared at her for a moment, contemplating what her answer would be, before finally giving it up "Yes, a couple of times, but it wasn't personal,"

Emily let out a sigh of relief and her face softened "Thank you," she said, and then turned on her heel and made her way back to the table "That's the connection," she said to Tara "The only connection we could find before was the hospital, but now..."

"They're all gay, that's the common denominator," Tara replied and grabbed out her phone "Hotch, we found something..."

* * *

"It's gotta be more than that," JJ said "I mean, more than just the gay factor, because that's a whole lot of rage,"

"Well, actually, it's more complicated than that," said Tara. Emily and Tara had gone back to the precinct, they'd stuck around the hospital to find out whatever they could find out, but it was nearing 6 pm, so they decided to call it a day at the hospital and brainstorm with their team instead. They would head back to Grey-Sloan tomorrow.

"All of them were with men before they were with women," Emily said, taking a seat at the conference room table. Hotch had noticed her behavior had changed when they came back. She tried to be as normal as possible, but Hotch knew. He always knew.

"Isn't that usually how it goes?" Luke asked "That's how they find out they're gay?"

Emily raised an eyebrow at him as JJ snorted "That's very heteronormative of you," the blonde commented "Some people find out when they're teenagers, and others don't know until late in life - believe it or not it has nothing to do with men," she winked at him, making him hold hs hands up in surrender.

"My apologies," he said, though he was grinning slightly "So, they all left men for women..."

"Leoni Poll was the only one that was married to one, and Teah Grayson was in a serious relationship with a guy when she got the job at the hospital," Emily started "But Michaela Sitwell was bisexual from what we've heard,"

"So our unsub isn't just targeting women who no longer sleep with men," said Rossi "He's targeting women who have slept with both,"

"Are we saying that thoroughbreds aren't being targeted here?" JJ asked.

"Thoroughbreds?" Hotch asked, his eyebrows shooting up just a fraction, but not enough for it to be considered a facial expression.

"Gay from the get-go," JJ explained, making the men in the room come to realization.

Emily snorted at the description, but didn't say anything else "That seems to be the case,"

"So this unsub believes you have to be gay from the beginning or...what? You deserve to die?" Luke asked "That doesn't make any sense,"

"In the unsub's mind it does," said Reid "A lot of people believe that a person's sexual orientation isn't valid if it's not discovered early in life. They believe that you should know,"

"What? No statistic?" Emily smirked at him, making him smile sheepishly, making her laugh "Oh, Spencer, don't ever change,"

"The unsub probably believes that by being with men beforehand, these women aren't valid, therefore they don't deserve to live," Tara explained.

The conversation went on into the night, until it hit about 11 pm and Hotch sent everyone back to the hotel. Emily was the last one to pack up, and the two of them were alone in the conference room.

"Is everything okay?" Hotch asked her eventually.

Emily had been lost in her own thoughts, but snapped her head up at his voice as she gathered the paper on the table, putting it into the files "Sorry?"

"Something's been bugging you for a while now," he responded as they started to leave the conference room and headed for the elevator "And we have a deal,"

Emily sighed as she smacked the button for the elevator "I'm not having a bad day, Hotch, it's nothing to do with that," Hotch gave her a look that told her he didn't believe her "Okay, fine, it does a little bit, but not for the reasons you think,"

The doors opened and they stepped in, hitting the underground parking button before they stood there, in silence. He didn't say anything, the more he pushed, the less she would tell him.

"I saw my best friend today," she offered, he was a little surprised but she didn't need to know that "I haven't seen her in a decade,"

She stopped talking, apparently that was all she was going to volunteer, so he pushed a little "How'd it go,"

She stayed silent for a moment, and the elevator doors opened. Hotch looked over at her, just as she swallowed "Not good," she replied, before stepping out.

* * *

"Did you get in touch with that third witness yesterday?" Hotch asked both Emily and Tara as they all met in the conference room the next day.

Emily shifted slightly "Uh, no, we never interviewed her,"

Hotch noticed the change in behavior, but just nodded "Okay, I want you both back there, if we plan on giving this profile today, we need all the facts,"

The two women nodded before Emily walked out the door, Hotch following close behind "I can send Reid," he said quietly as he joined in-step with her. Emily looked at him curiously "The witness, the one you never interviewed, she's the friend,"

Emily straightened her shoulders "I'll be fine,"

"Emi-"

"Hotch," she turned to face him as they hit the elevators again, she gave him a small smile of reassurance "I'm okay, you don't have to worry about me,"

Hotch looked at her for a few moments before nodding back at her, and Emily just caught the small, faint curve of his lip at the corner. Just then, Tara joined them.

"Everything okay?" she asked. Tara had noticed the strange behavior of the other agent yesterday, but knew better than to confront her about it. Emily wasn't one to overshare - or share in general.

Hotch went straight back into Unit Chief Mode by nodding and replying "As soon as we get a profile, I'll send Reid or JJ over to help you deliver it to the doctors,"

"It's a big hospital," said Tara.

"Start off with the Department Heads, the Chief of Surgery and the Board," said Hotch "We'll go from there,"

Both agents nodded and stepped into the elevator as the doors opened and Hotch started to walk away. As he looked back at her, Emily gave him a small but genuine smile. One which he couldn't help but return.

As the doors closed, Emily could feel Tara looking at her "What?"

Tara shook her head "Nothing," she replied "I just don't think I've ever seen him smile at work is all,"

Emily rolled her eyes, making Tara smirk. It's not like she's never noticed it before, the looks, the worry. Things that can't be defined under coworkers, or even friends.

Tara knew there was something between Hotch and Emily. The only people who _didn't_ know that were Hotch and Emily.

* * *

Tara and Emily walked through the doors of the hospital, making their way up to the pediatric wing, looking for their third witness.

The woman in question was standing at the nurses station with another man, talking about something. Blue eyes looked up and grabbed hold of brown ones. The blue froze, the brown didn't.

"Dr. Robbins," Emily started "This is Dr. Lewis, FBI,"

Arizona eyed her for a moment, and Emily could tell the man behind her was eyeing both agents suspiciously and stepped forward protectively. It almost made her smile.

"Arizona," she snapped out of her gaze on the raven-haired agent and addressed Tara "Pleasure to meet you,"

"Likewise," Tara smiled back "If you have a moment, Dr. Robbins, we'd like to get your statement,"

"She already talked to the cops," the man was close to Arizona, protectively so.

"We're not cops," Emily replied, narrowing her eyes at him.

"You've got a bigger title, so that makes you more important?" he asked, this time actually stepping in front of his boss.

"Alex!" Arizona scolded him, but he didn't back off. Tara looked at the young male doctor and her colleague, they seemed to be in some sort of stare down.

"Who do you think you are?" Alex asked "You think you can just put her through this again?"

"You're protective, and I respect that, but you don't want this fight with me - not over her," Emily said, the volume of her voice matching his.

"That is enough!" Tara watched as Arizona stood between the two, pushing her hands against their chests to tell them to back off "Both of you, back the hell off!"

The two stared at each other another moment before Tara put her hand on Emily's shoulder, shaking her out of the state she was in. She backed right off.

"Dr. Lewis, I think you should do the interview solo," Emily said to Tara, but she was looking at Arizona. She took a couple steps back and glanced at Alex, who seemed to have calmed down too, before turning around and walking away.

There was a silence that hung in the air, and no one moved, until Tara spoke up "I take it you two know each other,"

"Let's just get this over with."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Tara and Emily on the show, badass chicks stay together.


	3. Chapter 3

Emily tapped her foot as she waited out on the boardwalk, her arms crossed over her chest as she leaned back on the railing. She glanced through the glass of Chief Bailey's office, and saw Tara and Arizona talking.

She willed herself to look away, she was too close to be in that room and she knew it. Arizona might hate her for a long time, and Emily would just have to accept that. Being hated by her best friend for a little while was better than the alternative; being hated forever. And that was what would happen if Arizona found out about Doyle and INTERPOL.

Arizona's family were strict, but strict in a way of family and moral values. Of being a good person, and always doing the right thing - Emily had been making up for that in the last decade, because in her life before the BAU, she had never done the right thing.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a figure walking up to her "Look, I'm sorry for bein' an ass before,"

Emily looked up at the young surgeon, he looked sincere, but still wary of her "It's okay,"

"No, it's not," he said and mimicked her position as he moved next to her "You were just trying to do your job,"

Emily gave him a small smile "You care about her,"

Alex shrugged, not looking at her "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her,"

That was all he said on the matter and Emily sighed slightly "Me neither," she replied before looking over at him "Emily." she stuck her hand out to him to formally introduce herself "Prentiss."

Alex looked at her and smirked slightly as he shook her hand "Alex Karev," Before either of them said anything else, Alex' pager went off, making him pull his phone out of his pocket to check it "Gotta run," he said as he shoved his phone back into his coat.

"Well, it was nice to meet you Alex Karev," she said to him as he pushed off the railing and started to walk off, backwards as he faced her.

"See you 'round, Prentiss," he smirked before turning around and running off towards the elevator.

Emily shook her head as she watched him take off, shaking her head slightly. He reminded her of Nick. Nick, who Arizona married when they were ten and Emily married Tim. Nick, who never called her by her real name. Nick, who was the most stubborn, frustrating, kind and forgiving person she had ever met.

Yes, Alex Karev reminded her of Nick. And she was glad that Arizona had a person like that.

As Emily turned her head back towards the office, Tara came walking towards her "Anything?" she asked.

Tara nodded "We need to call Hotch, we've got ourselves a profile,"

* * *

"You good?" Alex asked Arizona as he came up next to her at the nurses station, grabbing a tablet from the charging station.

Arizona nodded "Yeah, I'm good,"

Alex looked over at her, trying to figure out whether she was bullshitting him or not. Apparently not. So he changed the subject "So, what's the deal with you and that Prentiss chick?" Arizona shifted on her feet and redirected her gaze to the paperwork in front of her "Is she like an ex or something? Cause I sorta got that vibe from her,"

Arizona rolled her eyes "Alex, I love you, but we're not talking about this,"

"Just tell me this," he said, facing her front-on to make sure that she knew he was serious, making her furrow her eyebrows at him "Do I need to kick her ass?"

Arizona blinked at him before she burst out laughing "Oh, Alex," she said and put both hands on his shoulders "You couldn't beat her in a fight if you tried,"

Alex grinned as Arizona continued to giggle at him, and he put the tablet back where he found it "I'd still try," he said and walked past her, only to spin back when he heard her again.

"Alex!" she called out, and he looked at her waiting for her to continue "Thank you,"

He gave her a lopsided grin before turning and walking away - and Arizona's pager went off.

* * *

"Has anyone seen Torres?" Alex yelled out as he comforted a crying child with two broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder and a broken femur.

"All the department heads are in some sort of meeting, she's not available," Tyler, the nurse, popped his head in.

"Page someone else, then," he told the tall nurse as he tried to soothe the little boy.

* * *

"What's going on?" Meredith asked as everyone gathered in the conference room. Two women she didn't recognize stood up front talking to Bailey.

Before anyone said anything, another woman walked into the conference room and went to the front with the others "Hotch said to get started,"

The other two women nodded to her and Bailey turned to the impatient doctors "Alright everybody, I am not losing another doctor, I've buried too many of you, so listen up," and with that, she took a seat closest to the front, but spun around to the blonde fetal surgeon "Robbins, where's Torres?"

Amelia snorted "Why are you askin' her?"

Arizona rolled her eyes at the neurosurgeon "I don't know where she is, I thought she was in the pit,"

"Mhm," Bailey responded before looking at all the surgeons "Ears open, people," she said, and turned to the women at the front, nodding for them to start.

"Thank you, Chief Bailey," one of them started "My name is Supervisory Special Agent Emily Prentiss, these are SSA's Tara Lewis and Jennifer Jareau,"

"Have you caught the guy yet?"

"No, we haven't," Tara responded warily "That's why-"

"Well, this isn't gonna go anywhere then," Amelia said, starting to stand "And I have patients to help,"

"You need to be alive to help them," Emily's statement stopped everyone in their tracks, and Amelia froze "This isn't a briefing to tell you that we're doing all we can, or putting your mind at ease, we're trying to save your lives,"

Amelia lowered herself back down in the chair "Look, we're not trying to scare you," Tara said "We just need you to listen,"

"In the last month, three of your colleagues have been murdered," JJ started "Three colleagues from different departments, with different roles that had one thing in common..."

"Their sexuality," Emily said, and glanced over at Arizona who had frozen completely.

"Are you telling us they died because they're gay?" Meredith asked, like it was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard.

"No," Emily shook her head "It's not that simple,"

"Our unsub is very specific when choosing his victims," Tara started "We call it victimology,"

"The unsub we're looking for, we believe, is a Caucasian male in his late thirties to early forties," JJ started "He's at least six feet tall and reasonably fit,"

"How do you know how tall he is?" asked Owen, his arms crossing over his chest. The three agents looked at each other, hesitating slightly. These weren't cops they were talking to, they were civilians, and half of them were possible targets.

"Just tell us," Arizona said, her voice slightly shaky.

Emily looked at her apologetically "When these women were strangled, the wire that was used cut through their skin," she started and she could see every single person in the room become horrified and ill "We were able to use the angle of the wound to determine how tall the unsub stood when he killed them,"

The agents gave the room a few moments before Emily gave JJ the nod to continue "He's not intimidating, in fact, hes probably someone you feel comfortable around - someone you can joke with in the elevator or trade small-talk in the cafeteria line,"

"He's charming, and he can smooth talk around any situation," Tara continued "But there's one thing that he can't charm through, and that's his homophobia,"

"It most likely started off when he was a child, his parents instilling in him that homosexuality is wrong," Emily continued "Whether it's religious or close-mindedness, we don't know, either way - it's always been there. We believe he was abused as a child, and no one ever tried to protect him, which is where he learned violence,"

"But that's not enough to provoke this kind of violence or hatred," Tara started "Which means something happened to him that made him believe that these women deserved to die for what they had done,"

"Being gay?" Maggie asked, her eyebrows raised close to her hairline.

"Women who leave men for other women," said JJ "It doesn't matter how far apart the relationships are, not to him,"

"So this guy's dad beat the crap out of him and now he just goes 'round killing women?" asked Jackson "That's sick,"

"This won't make sense to you, it barely makes sense to us," Emily said, trying to explain to them "These thoughts and urges had been brewing ever since he was a child, and he'd managed to push them down and ignore them all these years,"

"The 'something' that happened to him that we were talking about, we call it a stressor," said Tara "It's the mental break that the unsub needs to bring all those urges and thoughts to the surface again, with such a vengeance that he can't push them back down - so he finally acts on them,"

"So, we're looking for a homophobic, resentful, six foot white guy," Amelia piped up and scoffed and Emily saw Arizona on her phone, calling someone quietly "Look around you, our Chief of Surgery is a black woman, our department heads are mainly women - this hospital is _filled_ with homophobic, resentful, six foot white guys,"

"I understand this-"

"She's not answering," Arizona cut her off as she tried calling again "I haven't seen her all day and she's not answering," her voice was rising with panic, her eyes pleading with Emily's as they locked with the agent's.

"Who?" JJ asked.

"Callie," Meredith said and Emily stepped into action.

"Chief Bailey, we need you to put the hospital on lock down, right now," said Emily and she pulled the phone out of her pocket, dialing quickly "Hotch, we've got a problem,"

* * *

She was arguing with the security guard. Just like she did every time there was a situation like this.

"If I put the hospital on lock down, every single door locks, there's no way around them," he argued. Tara stood back and watched the small woman argue with a man who probably should have known better.

Bailey glared at him "You don't think I know that?!" she yelled "That's the point! One of our doctors is missing whilst there's a serial killer in the hospital!"

"I understand-"

"No, you don't!" Bailey screamed at him before lowering her voice threateningly "I am _not_ losing another doctor today, especially not _this_ one, so you're gonna call it, or I'll find someone else who will,"

The man swallowed hard, Bailey yelled. When she didn't, you knew you were in trouble. He nodded and called the code, making every single door slam shut and lock.

"It's done." he said.

"We're gonna need the master keys to unlock the doors," Tara finally piped up as she stepped forward "You're gonna link our technical analyst to your security systems so she can go through every single frame of that footage to find Dr. Torres,"

"That's against protocol," he tried to argue.

"You know what else is against protocol?" Bailey asked him "Pissing me off! You get her whatever the hell she needs or you can kiss your job goodbye!"

The security guard nodded and Tara pulled out her phone, putting it on loudspeaker as she walked.

_"I thought you forgot about me,"_

Normally, Tara would say something to cheer up her friend, but this wasn't the time "Garcia, I'm gonna hook you up with the control room here at the hospital, I need you to find me the last time Dr. Torres is on the screen,"

_"What's the IP address to their servers?"_

* * *

"What's the situation?" Hotch asked as he, Rossi, Luke and Reid met Emily and Tara in the lobby of the hospital, passing them vests as they walked in.

"Missing doctor, Callie Torres," Emily replied and they huddled in a circle "I got a photo from her personnel file and sent it to your phones,"

"How long has she been missing?" asked Rossi as he hooked the earpiece around his ear.

"The last time someone saw her was 10 o'clock this morning," Emily said, doing the same thing with hers "Garcia's going through the security footage with Lewis and JJ's with the other doctors right now,"

"She fits the profile?" asked Luke.

"To a 'T'," Emily replied and Hotch nodded.

"Okay, Dave, go find Lewis, Alvez and Reid, grab JJ - Prentiss you're with me," Hotch said, and the agents went to take off, but Emily stopped them.

"When the hospital goes on lock down, it doesn't just lock the exits," she started.

"It locks every door in between," Hotch finished for her "Where are the master keys?"

"I've got two," Emily said as she pulled them out of her back pocket, passing one to Alvez and one to Hotch before addressing Rossi "Lewis has the other,"

"Alright, let's go,"

* * *

Alex looked up at April when he saw her stop moving in his peripheral vision, and saw her frozen on the spot, staring at something on the wall.

"Kepner, what are you doing?" he asked as he continued to work on the little boy in the trauma room.

"Alex," she said in nothing louder than a whisper, which made him stop and look at what she was looking at.

The lights on the wall, the ones that glow when there's a code. This one made him freeze too, Code Yellow. Armed Intruder. Fuck.

The last time there was an armed intruder, he was shot in an elevator.

"This can't be happening," April said, both her voice and hands shaking "Not again,"

Alex snapped off his gloves and walked over to her, grabbing her by the shoulders so that she would look at him "We don't know what's going on, but whatever it is, we're safe in here - this system was put in after last time so it didn't happen again, you here me?"

"Harriet's in daycare," April said, her eyes swelling with tears as she tried to push past him "I have to get to her,"

"Kepner, no," he said, holding her back, but she was struggling in his grip "April!"

"I have to get to her, Alex!" she cried, tears streaming down her face as she tried to fight him off.

"April! We can't leave!" he said "There's no way you can get to her right now,"

The struggling stopped, but the tears didn't. She broke out into choked sobs and Alex pulled her into his chest "She's safe there, she's safe," he whispered and rubbed her back for a moment before he pulled away to look at her "Listen to me, there's nothing we can do for her, we just have to trust that the system is working," April nodded "Right now, we need to help this kid because he's in a lot of pain, and we can help him,"

"Okay,"

"Okay," Alex nodded and let go of her. April blinked a couple of times and wiped the tears from her face, taking a deep breath before she put on a fresh pair of gloves "We've only got residents out there now and they haven't done this before, so I'm gonna go check that they haven't killed anyone,"

April nodded to him and gave him a silent 'thank you' before he walked out into the pit.

"Okay everyone listen up!"

* * *

Everyone sat in silence, not really knowing what to say. They were in lock-down, their friend might be dead and they had no idea what to say.

"Has anyone called the daycare?" asked Meredith, her knee was bouncing under the table.

Jackson nodded "The kids are fine, they're locked in and they calmed the kids down with a movie,"

Arizona sat frozen, a single tear rolled down her cheek.

"They'll find her," said Owen, trying to reassure her.

"I should've told her," Arizona said, her voice was raspy and quiet, but they all heard it "I should've..."

Everyone knew what she meant, everyone knew that Arizona was still in love with Callie. It was the reason Arizona told her to go to New York in the first place - to make Callie happy. Because that's all Arizona ever wanted.

"She knew," Amelia said "I think she knew,"

Arizona shook her head and closed her eyes, another tear rolling down her cheek "She didn't know,"

"You're gonna tell her," Meredith said, with a firm nod "When they find her, when this is all over, you're gonna tell her,"

Arizona didn't respond. If they found her alive, she would tell her. Without a doubt. But they might not find her - and even if they did, there's no telling if she'd be breathing or not.

"Geoffrey Maddox," Jackson said suddenly, making everyone look at him "Maddox found his fiance in bed with someone else, I figured it was another man but..."

"You think Maddox is the killer?" Owen asked, shaking his head slightly "That's ridiculous, I mean, Maddox is just like us, he's a regular guy,"

"That's what they said he'd be," said Maggie "He'd be normal, likable,"

"Can we talk about something else, please?" Arizona whispered, her eyes still closed.

The room went silent. They didn't know what to talk about. What do you talk about in a situation like this.

"I thought all of this crap was over," Arizona said "I thought every disaster you could possibly imagine had happened to us - but I guess I didn't include serial killers,"

"Well it was only a matter of time," Meredith mumbled, making Amelia smack her in the arm "What? She's right! We've all survived a lot of very bad things, the bad things weren't supposed to keep happening after we changed the name from Seattle Grace Mercy Death,"

Arizona let out a bark of laughter. It was short, but it was something. The atmosphere wasn't as heavy after that, but it wasn't exactly sunshine and rainbows either.

That's when they heard it. The gunshot.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little shorter but I hope it's enough to tide everyone over for a little while. Anyway, hope you enjoy.

"What the hell do you want from me?" she asked as she was being tied up, her hands behind her back. She was at an awkward angle, an angle that didn't allow her to see the guy's face.

"You tell me, Dr. Torres," he replied, lowly. Too low for her to recognize the voice.

"If I knew, neither of us would be here, would we?" Callie grumbled. Right now she was more frustrated than scared - and the cryptic answers were not helping that right now "Is this a robbery?" she asked "Because I don't keep cash in my scrubs, I'm afraid,"

Suddenly, her hair was being pulled back, almost to the point where it was coming out of her scalp. She yelped and she felt a hot breath on her ear "Shut the fuck up,"

That's when the fear set in, and her eyes widened, her breath catching in her throat "Just-just tell me what you want,"

Then the figure stepped in front of her, and with the confusion of who was standing before her, came dread. The wicked smile on his face was only there for a fraction of a second, but it was there, and she saw it.

Just before the hard crack of a hand came across her face.

* * *

"Anything, Garcia?" Emily asked through the comms, as she and Hotch made their way through the ground floor, clearing room by room.

_"Not yet, there's a lot of cameras and a lot of people,"_

They made their way down the hall, clearing supply closets, patient rooms and on-call rooms as they went along. As Emily approached an on-call room to her left, she re-gripped the weapon in her right hand, her left coming up to touch the door handle.

She pushed down on the handle slowly, but the handle didn't move very far - it was locked.

Emily glanced back at Hotch as she stepped back from the room, and saw him nod at her as he stood ready to back her up. She took another step back and positioned herself in front of the door before spinning on her leg and roundhouse kicking the door wide open - Chuck Norris Style.

There was a loud yell as Emily charged inside, Hotch followed closely behind.

"Oh, Jesus!" Emily cried at the sight in front of her as she lowered her gun, Hotch doing the same.

Two people were in the bed, furiously trying to cover themselves with the bed sheet "What the hell?" the man yelled.

"The hospital is in lock down," Hotch said, holstering his weapon "Get dressed and follow us, now,"

Emily almost would have laughed if the situation weren't so serious, but she couldn't help but crack a smirk as she walked past Hotch, stopping to murmur in his ear "I guess what they say about hospitals is true,"

He could feel her breath on his neck as she whispered, his lip twitching as she brushed past him. He followed closely behind her, leaving the naked two in the room to get dressed.

* * *

Her mind was racing as she lie curled up on the floor, her head throbbing as blood trickled from the point of her eyebrow. She knew what was about to happen, she knew the inevitability. No one even knew she was missing, and by the time someone figured it out, she'll be dead.

She closed her eyes as he paced back and forth. The only thing she could think about right now was her ex-wife. That was the only thing getting her through.

_The music was soft, but she could hear it as she walked through the door of their apartment. Callie frowned slightly as she threw her keys in the bowl by the door and put her bag down, taking off her leather jacket._

_She walked through the apartment and found the music coming from their daughter's room. As she approached, she was able to make out the song - Can't Help Falling in Love by Elvis Presley. It was an odd choice from her wife, she thought, but what she saw when she reached the room made her breath hitch in her throat._

_In the middle of the room, stood her wife, dancing with their daughter. Sofia's chubby little fingers were wrapped around Arizona's pinky as she slowly twirled around the room in a waltzing motion, her head buried in her mother's neck as she slept._

_Callie stood, mesmerized, looking at the beautiful creature she'd married. The twinkly lights they'd hung around the room illuminated her skin, her eyes bright as she looked down at the sleeping baby._

_It took a moment to realize that Callie was in the doorway, but when she finally looked up at her wife, she gave her a two-dimple super-magic smile that managed to take her breath away all over again._

_"I didn't know you were a Presley fan," Callie whispered as she walked further inside the room, wrapping her arms around the two._

_"I'm not," said Arizona, leaning her head against Sofia's, her eyes gazing into Callie's "My dad used to do this with me when I wouldn't sleep, figured I'd give it a try,"_

_"It seems to be working," Callie replied, reaching up to tuck a stray lock of blonde hair behind her wife's ear and tracing a line over her jaw._

_Arizona lifted her head off Sofia and smiled for a moment before whispering "Callie,"_

_"Yeah," Callie replied, her arm tracing little circles on the blonde's back._

_"Kiss me."_

And so she did. She had kissed her. And every bit of love she had ever felt for any human being was all in that room. Her daughter, her wife. Her family. She needed to remember that in that moment, because there was a very high possibility she wasn't making it out of this alive.

* * *

Dave and Tara swept through the ground floor, locking everyone in rooms and hiding them away so they weren't out in the open.

"I hate hospitals," Rossi grumbled, looking around like he felt someone watching him "Bad things always happen in hospitals,"

"You're being paranoid," Tara replied, sweeping another supply closet.

"The last time we were in a hospital, Derek's wife was on the table. Before that, Reid got shot in the neck and almost died - and the time before that, JJ told us that Emily had died," Rossi said, and he saw Tara pause at the last one "I'm not being paranoid,"

"Okay, I take your point," Tara replied, continuing along the corridor, not pressing the subject any further.

Before either of them could say anything else, they heard Garcia through the radio.

_"Guys, I found her - well, I found the last time she was seen on camera,"_

"Where?" Tara asked.

_"Ground floor stairwell, she goes in but never comes out,"_

_"Prentiss and I are closest, we're headed there now,"_

"Copy that, Hotch," Tara replied as they made their way toward the stairwell, heading down.

* * *

Hotch and Emily picked up their pace as they made their way toward the stairwell, scanning the access key before barging through with their guns raised and ready.

"Where we headed?" Emily asked "There's two ways this could have gone,"

"Roof or basement," Hotch added, voicing it out loud.

"Considering we're on the ground floor, I don't think he would've taken her all the way to the roof," she said, looking at him for confirmation before they went down.

"Okay," he nodded "Down."

Emily returned the nod he gave her and led them down a flight of stairs to a door. It was very possible that this was it, so they both prepared themselves.

They looked at each other, taking a moment to make sure they were ready before Emily took a step and kicked the door down hard.

The strangled cry that sounded wasn't a pleasant noise, especially when they saw Callie behind held in a choke hold with a knife to her throat, blood running down her face.

"FBI!" Hotch yelled "Put the knife down!"

"Get back!" he screamed at them.

"We can't do that," Emily responded, the barrel of her gun directed right between his eyes. She could make the shot, but he was moving too much, he was too erratic and there was a possibility of hitting Callie in the process "You've got my friend there, and I'm gonna need you to put the knife down,"

"She's a whore!" he screamed and Callie's eyes squeezed shut as the tip of the knife pressed into the side of her neck even further, drawing blood "They all are!"

Emily hesitated for a moment, and she knew she was gonna get in trouble for what she was about to do, but she lowered her weapon anyway. She put it back in it's holster, and she could almost see Hotch seething next to her as he tightened his grip on his gun.

"Why is she?" Emily provoked, taking a small, slow step forward.

"She was married!" he yelled.

"To Dr. Robbins," Emily said, risking another step forward.

"No!" the man screamed at her, digging the knife in deeper so Callie cried out in pain "Before that, she was married! It's wrong! It's disgusting and people like her shouldn't exist!"

"You're right, it is wrong," said Emily and she knew that she had to empathize. The problem with that was that not one bit of her would ever be able to do that, and she didn't even know who he was - which was going to make it even harder "She betrayed you,"

Emily could see the sweat on his forehead, his eyes were wide and his body language was shifty "She made you nothing,"

"She left me!" he cried out.

"And you are hurting," Emily said, taking another slow step forward "She made you feel like you were nothing, like you meant nothing,"

She could see him pull the knife away from Callie's neck slightly as she made it closer to him and he started to talk to her "But that's not her," she said "That's not her,"

"She's just like her," he growled "She's just like all of them,"

"What happened to you, wasn't fair," she said, and she was getting real tired of empathizing with this jackass, but she continued anyway "You didn't deserve that, you deserved so much better,"

A tear rolled down his face, and his grip loosened on Callie a little, but not enough for her to break free yet. Just a little more.

"Because you're a good guy, a decent guy, unlike all of these women," she said, and she could feel the bile rising, but pushed it down anyway. She saw the knife in his hand start to tremble, and she knew this was it, and stuck her hand out "Put down the knife, and I'll walk you right out that door,"

He looked hesitant "You'll kill me,"

Emily shook her head "No," she said firmly "Not if you put the knife down. If you put the knife down, I'll make sure you tell your story, I'll make sure the entire world knows what kind of women they were,"

"You're lying," he said and Emily looked him dead in the eyes.

"I'm not lying,"

Her gaze didn't waver even though the more she looked at him, the more she wanted to throw up. It looked like he believed her, because that's when he started to lower the knife and his grip on Callie loosened even more.

"It's okay," she pushed and he pushed Callie to the side, and Hotch stood in front of her.

As he was about to drop the knife into her outstretched hand, he suddenly turned it up and stabbed her in the exposed part of her gut, just under her vest.

Emily stood frozen, just before she dropped and Hotch didn't waste any time before he fired a shot right between his eyes. The unsub fell to the ground, a pool of blood spreading underneath his head immediately.

Hotch wasted no time in making his way to Emily, who was struggling to breathe a little bit "Emily," he said as he started to take her vest off "Emily, stay with me,"

He looked back at the doctor, who seemed to be in shock. She was staring at the dead body on the ground, blood running down her neck.

"Dr. Torres!" he called out to her, snapping her out of her daze, and she came rushing over.

"Okay," she said, putting her hands over the wound and looking at Hotch "Go get some help," she said, and he nodded at her before looking back down at his agent, his hand quickly squeezing hers before he bolted out of the room.

"Emily, can you hear me?" Callie asked, holding steady pressure on the bleeding wound.

Hotch ran through the halls of the hospital, trying to find a doctor. This couldn't be happening, not again. She couldn't be in this position again. He couldn't lose her again.

**Author's Note:**

> So, as you'll notice, Callie came back from New York, there's no details but there will be. In later chapters, there'll be an explanation or both you and Arizona. Also, I love Emily being the Unit Chief, I do, but I love Hotchniss so much that I can't just let it go.


End file.
